Foreclosure activity in Wisconsin decreased 3 percent in July to 4,194 properties with foreclosure filings, 10 percent above the level reported in July 2009, according to the latest RealtyTrac® U.S. Foreclosure Market Report.

“Wisconsin foreclosures fell slightly in July,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “The largest decline was in default notices, which dropped 19 percent for the month. The state’s unemployment rate has been declining recently and is now nearly 2 percent below the national average. This has likely contributed to the recent drop in activity.”

Wisconsinranked 19th in the country in total foreclosures reported for the month. With one in every 613 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing, its foreclosure rate ranked 19th again among the 50 states.

KenoshaCounty posts top county foreclosure rate in July

KenoshaCounty posted the highest foreclosure rate, with one in every 287 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing in July. ColumbiaCounty posted the second highest foreclosure rate, with one in every 347 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing during the month. Coming in third was MilwaukeeCounty, where one in every 354 housing units received a foreclosure filing in July.

MilwaukeeCounty dominates state with top foreclosure total for July

MilwaukeeCounty led the state in total foreclosure activity, reporting 1,159 properties with foreclosure filings in July. Second highest KenoshaCounty reported 236 properties with foreclosure filings. DaneCounty came in third highest, tallying 223 properties with foreclosure filings. Fourth highest was BrownCounty, where 186 properties with foreclosure filings were reported. WaukeshaCounty was fifth, reporting 178 properties with foreclosure filings for the month.

State contributes 1 percent to nation’s monthly foreclosure total

Wisconsin accounted for 1 percent of the 325,229 properties with foreclosure filings reported nationwide in July. Total U.S. activity increased by more than 3 percent from the previous month but was down almost 10 percent from the level reported in July 2009. One in every 397 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing during the month.

Report methodology

The RealtyTrac U.S. Foreclosure Market Report provides a count of the total number of properties with at least one foreclosure filing entered into the RealtyTrac database during the month — broken out by type of filing by state, county and metropolitan statistical area. Some foreclosure filings entered into the database during the month may have been recorded in previous months. Data is collected from more than 2,200 counties nationwide, and those counties account for more than 90 percent of the U.S. population. RealtyTrac’s report incorporates documents filed in all three phases of foreclosure: Default—Notice of Default (NOD) and Lis Pendens (LIS); Auction— Notice of Trustee Sale and Notice of Foreclosure Sale (NTS and NFS); and Real Estate Owned, or REO properties (that have been foreclosed on and repurchased by a bank). If more than one foreclosure document is received for a property during the month, only the most recent filing is counted in the report. The report also checks if the same type of document was filed against a property in a previous month. If so, and if that previous filing occurred within the estimated foreclosure timeframe for the state the property is in, the report does not count the property in the current month.

For current news and information regarding foreclosure-related issues and trends, check out our blog at www.ForeclosurePulse.com.

About RealtyTrac

RealtyTrac® is the leading provider of comprehensive housing data and analytics for the real estate and financial services industries, Federal, state and local governments, academic institutions, and the media. Data is aggregated from parcel-level records of more than 125 million U.S. residential and commercial properties and delivered through customizable products including bulk file licensing, APIs and custom reports.